Responsibility
by xStaticxTelevisionx
Summary: When even your five-year-old has a better work ethic than you...there's a problem. And yes, Alice is still a dragon. xD


**I...I don't know what to write...It's causing me a great deal of distress actually...I literally just came up with this idea in two seconds...and it took me forever to finish...xD R&amp;R!**

**-Static**

**/*\**

Closets were not a favored hiding place, nor were wardrobes, but right now he had very little choice. The enemy was after him.

He'd been unpleasantly roused from his slumber not half an hour ago, shaken awake and promptly abducted. At some point during the operation, he'd managed to break free, and the beast was now on the prowl. If he was found he was done for. He'd managed the initial escape, but the pursuit was both straining and traumatizing on several levels. It was the dead of night, so he had the advantage, but his pursuer was simultaneously fast and silent, one of the deadliest men he'd ever had the misfortune of meeting.

Had it not been for his own set of similarly impressive powers, he'd never have made it.

And so the man had very quickly retreated into a random room within the tower, and stowed himself away in the closet-space. He was leaning against the door, so that he might be able to hear the going-ons on the other side. He was certain he'd lost his assailant, and was starting to relax when something glimmered out of the corner of his one eye.

It was a piece of clothing. A small dress, made of silk and slightly shimmery. It was gray, and appeared to have fallen off of the hanger. That was when the man realized his mistake. Of all the rooms he could have stumbled upon, it just had to be this one. His mission might as well be considered a failure.

This room was the home of someone with powers quite similar to his.

There was no way she didn't know he was here.

As the horrifying realization had dawned on the man, the door had slammed open. The pursuer had found him. It was all over.

"Lord Nightmare," Gray had growled, clearly trying to keep his temper under control. "Are you aware that there are fifteen stacks of paperwork waiting in your office for you?" To this, Nightmare paled, but he still made an attempt to appear innocent.

"I was not," He stated, and he was going to continue on about how if he had known, he'd have been right on it when his subordinate grabbed his collar, and dragged him out of the room. As the dream demon resisted and struggled to break free, his eye caught sight of a little girl, watching the spectacle with a little too much interest. A little girl _who should have been asleep in the bed she was standing next to._ "Gray wait just a second," and for the moment, the lizard humored his boss, and stopped, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes?"

"How did you know where I was?" Nightmare questioned, never taking his gaze off the girl.

"Midna told me." The dream demon narrowed his eyes at the little girl.

"Is that so?" and she nodded, absolutely unimpressed with his attempt to appear threatening. But then, it would be hard for anyone to appear threatening when someone else was holding a vise grip on the collar of their shirt. "Why?"

"If I can be bothered to do the homework that Ms. Tina gives me, then you can go do your paperwork." She stated simply, gazing at the man in quite an innocent manner. She earned an approving grin from Gray before he turned back to his boss.

"See? Even your daughter thinks you need to be more responsible. Now that we've determined the why, you can come on back to the office." And Nightmare struggled some more as his aide dragged him down the hall.

"Midna you traitooooor!" He shouted down the hall.

To be fair to the little girl however, it was not her fault that her father was such a ridiculous man.

/*\

When Alice arrived at Clover Tower the next day, the first person she wanted to see was - naturally - her daughter. She looped her way through the towers many turns and twists, and finally stood in front of the girl's bedroom. She opened the door, and was more than a little irritated with the sight she was presented with.

Midna was something of a mess. Her long, straight silver hair was tangled quite badly. Her owlish, gray eyes were shadowed by dark circles, clearly stating that she had not slept very well. Judging by the wrinkles in the clothes, she hadn't yet gotten a bath today, and it looked as though small specks of dirt were caught underneath some of the scales on her wings and tail.

Nightmare was not taking very good care of their child.

"Dad's perfectly fine," she said, breaking Alice out of her reverie, "I just didn't tell any of the maids I got up yet."

Sometimes Alice forgot that Midna had also inherited some of Nightmare's powers, such as the one where she could read minds.

"What happened? You look tired." Alice stated, as she knelt next to the child, who was absently playing with a few toys on the floor. Midna shrugged,

"Dad was hiding from Uncle Gray again. I don't think he realized he came into my room though, because he hid in my closet. I woke up when he closed the door, and then I couldn't get back to sleep." Lovely.

Once she got Midna sorted out, Alice was going to have some serious words with her husband.

/*\

Upon getting the little girl bathed with a good hair brushing, the Jabberwocky dressed her, and had the maids get her some breakfast. The child now occupied, Alice stomped to Nightmare's office, and slammed the doors open.

"Would either of you," She glared at Nightmare and then Gray, "Care to tell me why my baby was so exhausted and so terribly ungroomed when I arrived this morning?" And then she crossed her arms, and with the tilt of her head, challenged both men to give her an excuse.

"...He was supposed to take care of it." Nightmare said very quickly, pointing at Gray and hiding behind his desk. Alice glared, and turned to the accused man. The ex-assassin was quite afraid for his life at this point. He might have been one of the most skilled killers in all of Wonderland, but he did not like his chances should he have to defend himself from a _dragon._ His _friend _no less.

"Alice, let me explain-" and he was promptly cut off as Alice sharply raised her hand, calling for silence.

"Gray," she said evenly, "I appreciate every bit of effort you've put into assisting us in raising Midna, and I'm sure she feels the same. It is not your job to ensure her well-being, you are not her father. That imbecile right there is." And she gestured to the man...who was no longer sitting at his desk.

He had disappeared.

"I'm married to a two-year-old." She stated simply, turning away in an attempt to quell her anger. Gray walked up and placed a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

"Don't worry," he said cheerfully, "I'll catch him, and then I'll hand him over to you." To this Alice smiled,

"Thank you."

/*\

Midna was in the tower's biggest cafeteria, scarfing down her breakfast when suddenly, a great deal of screeching came from the kitchen. There were so many faceless in the room at this particular moment, that she couldn't read their thoughts well enough to determine exactly what was going on. It was like being in a crowd where everyone was either talking, yelling, or outright screaming. Everyone had gone on alert immediately, so there was no way for her to pick out and differentiate all of the assorted words and phrases, so for once, she was just as confused as any other kid might be.

Deciding it was better to be safe than sorry, she pushed herself away from one of the twenty-five tables, and with a few powerful flaps from her wings, she perched herself up in the rafters of the cafeteria, only startling a few people. She knew she might get scolded for her antics, but despite being fairly level-headed for her age, she was still a bit skittish.

She had always been able to read minds, and so from a very young age, knew a great deal more about the darker aspects of Wonderland than either of her parents would have liked. She knew that - even though she'd never once seen it happen in person - the people _really_ liked to kill each other. Their thoughts were murder, murder and more murder, and so it was understandable that Midna might not be too keen on the notion of 'bravery'. She retreated into the shadowed part of the rafters and watched.

Soon enough, a bit of smoke started to waft from the kitchen, and then the set of double-doors burst open to reveal...her father. Seriously?

_Dad?_ She questioned in her mind. For a moment the man's one eye whirled around, trying to find her.

_Yes Midna?_ He answered, _Where are you?_ She sent him a mental image of her spot near the ceiling, and soon his gaze met hers. _Why are you up there?_ She simply tilted her head, in not too dissimilar a manner from the cats, and retorted.

_What are you doing down there? Shouldn't you be at work?_

"You know," The dream demon stated aloud, "It's not very respectful to scold your father. Especially when you are only five years old." Choosing to keep her end of the conversation on the telepathic level,

_I wouldn't scold you if you didn't act more childish than me._ And he opened his mouth to threaten her with grounding when Gray swung in through an open window. Cool.

"Lord Nightmare," He snarled, and he was going to continue with the reaming of his boss when he caught sight of the little girl hiding up in the ceiling. "Midna?" Knowing exactly what his confusion was, the little girl spoke.

"There was a big noise from the kitchen. The faceless got upset, and I got a little scared. So I hid up here." And Gray narrowed his eyes at Nightmare. It was one thing to shirk work, it was quite another to cause so much commotion within the tower that even his mind-reading daughter got so lost in the chaos that she didn't know what was going on.

"Lord Nightmare," He repeated, about to yell quite a lot when white flames appeared on top of the table.

"You," her voice boomed through the room as she pointed to the all-too-unlucky incubus. "_I was not done with you._" She growled, her pupils narrowing. The woman was so enraged that she hadn't noticed her daughter yet. "Why won't you take care of her? I know you can't stand work, but you always say how important Midna is to you, but when I leave for one week, I return to see her more than disheveled, exhausted, and telling me that you hid in her closet in order to escape Gray. And _then_," her voice just got the tiniest bit louder as Nightmare opened his mouth to defend himself, "When I come to ask you about it, you tell me Gray was supposed to take care of it, and I'll tell you the same thing I told him. He is not her father, _you_ are."

Naturally, Nightmare was not all that accustomed to stress, so when Alice had chosen to confront him, then and there, and in front of their daughter after Gray's own arrival...it had not gone well.

The incubus wanted to answer, but the panic had left his stomach reeling.

The one thing Nightmare had done right as a parent - or at least in his opinion - was that he had never, ever let Midna know he was ill. Being an older telepath, and with more skills, he was able to completely shield her mind from registering the thoughts of other people where his illness was concerned. She had never known, and he had always been quite careful not to be sick where she could hear or see.

He tried to keep it down, he really did, but after about five minutes of awkward silence, he spewed blood everywhere. He couldn't help it. He fell to the floor coughing, just barely managing to evade splotching his suit with red. In a matter of moments, his mind was overwhelmed with irritation, worry, but most of all, complete and utter fright.

Again, Midna had never known he had an issue, and so when she watched her father literally puke up blood, it was the most upsetting thing she had ever had the misfortune of witnessing.

Nightmare locked eyes with the child, and Gray knelt beside his boss, trying to block the sight from the little girl as much as possible. Alice had finally realized that Midna was present, and the sheer horror on the little girl's face...

Midna was not used to being taken by surprise. Watching her father cough up blood, _blood_, was not a pleasant surprise either.

She knew her dad overplayed his strength and power and importance more than he probably should. She caught her mother thinking all too often over how much of a "spoiled brat" he could sometimes be, and how he had absolutely no sense of responsibility. Midna had no issue agreeing with these observations, however at the same time...

Nightmare was her father. She cared about him just as much as she did for Mom. He was supposed to be the strongest man she knew, the person who could and would protect her from any and all dangers the world had to offer. For her entire life, she had believed this, and so for her to see him so...fragile, in so weak a state...

That terrified her.

Nightmare had picked up on every single one of these thoughts, and that brought him to a realization. Watching his daughter shrink even further away into the rafters, her wings and tail curling around her body to form a protective shell...that was horrible enough. It wasn't until he saw the tears shimmering in her eyes that he made the hardest decision of his life. He might have clung to his own youth and carelessness and too-quickly-lost-innocence for a long, long time, but he was no longer a child, and he needed to come to terms with that. He _couldn't_ be a child.

Because he had one of his own, and she needed him.

"Alice," he requested softly, "Will you please, please take Midna out of here?" The Dragon merely studied him for a moment, and he looked at her with one, wide, pleading eye. This was a look she was accustomed to, but this time it felt a little different. He had always used the puppy-dog face for trivial matters, never had he looked so simultaneously serious. She tilted her head at him, and nodded slowly,

"I will," she answered, but then lower, "But do not think for one minute that this is over." And as she turned away, his next words shocked her.

"Gray," He'd turned to his aide, who was helping him to his feet. "Will you please call a carriage, get me some medicine, and take me to the hospital?"

For a moment, Gray wondered if he was having some absurd sort of dream, and briefly considered pinching his arm in order to ensure it was real. He decided he would do so later and quickly nodded his head before his boss changed his mind.

"Of course," And Midna - being carried out the door in her mother's arms - was sent one last thought.

_Don't worry,_ her father reassured, _It's all going to be fine._

/*\

**One month later...**

"Dad!" The little girl knocked on the office door insistently, and with a mental invitation, she pushed said door in. "Dad, when are you going to be done? I want you to play with me!"

For the first time in years, no, _decades_, there was but two stacks of paperwork sitting on the dream demon's desk, and he was studiously reading over terms and conditions and appropriately accepting and rejecting ideas. He was actually working, and the Tower's operations were no longer as hectic and the faceless, not as panicked, because they were no longer constantly missing vital information. The man's gaze momentarily fell to the little girl, and he grinned before swiftly shifting back to the paper before him.

"I only have a little more," he reassured, "I'll be done soon." and she pouted.

"But I finished all of my homework." She grumbled, her tail flicking.

"If you want, I can take the paperwork this time." Gray offered, almost eagerly from his place on the couch, where he was anxiously tapping his feet on the floor and restlessly scratching a cat behind the ears.

Ever since the incubus had his revelation, Gray had become a proper assistant rather than a nanny. For years, he'd spent so many of his waking moments chasing down Nightmare and doing the paperwork for him and trying to keep him in good health. Now that Nightmare had grown up a little and finally took on his own duties, Gray wasn't entirely sure what to do with all of his new free time. Once Nightmare's so belated maturity announced itself, he'd been reduced to performing duties that took him mere minutes to complete, as opposed to hours that turned into days.

It was almost driving him mad.

As always, the demon could see these thoughts, and laughed.

"I guess I can ditch a little early, for old time's sake." He grinned at the ex-assassin, who only glowered in return.

"It's only been a month." He grumbled, but this time, he had absolutely no issue sitting in the chair at the desk and picking up a pen. "Go on, get out of here." He mumbled, already focusing his every bit of attention on his task, finally relieved of the nagging feeling that he should be doing something. Nightmare only grinned,

"See you tomorrow Gray." And then he turned to the little girl, and knelt down to her eye-level. "So what game do you want to play?" Midna did not miss a beat.

"Hide and seek!" She exclaimed, just as happy and excited as any other young child.

"Alright, you hide, and I'll count." She nodded vigorously, and ran away, the pale silk of her dress fluttering behind her as she thought about all the different places she could possibly hide away in the tower.

She was happy that she could have a dad similar to the ones the faceless children always thought about. Someone who was unwaveringly kind and dependable, as compared to someone she had to look over in the manner of a sibling. Finally, it was her turn to be the kid, and this development was more than welcomed by both parents.

As for Alice?

She was just happy that she was finally married to an adult.

**/*\**

**Sooo yeah. Did you guys get my not-so-subtle Zelda reference? xD I've been trying to write this for days, but with the ending of spring break...I had too little time. xD But hey, now that it's Friday - well actually, it's technically Saturday, it's 12:32 in the morning - I have time! Please take a moment to review! :3**

**-Static**


End file.
